John Henry Browne, the attorney for Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, the man accused of single-handedly massacring 17 Afghan villagers, is now accusing the United States government of an almost complete information blackout which is blocking him from preparing a proper defense for Bales.

Browne alleges that he and his legal team has been prevented from being able to interview the witnesses to the tragic incident as well as the injured civilians in southern Afghanistan.

...

We are facing an almost complete information blackout from the government, which is having a devastating effect on our ability to investigate the charges preferred against our client, he added.

...

However, this case has been rife with inconsistencies and unanswered questions, especially surrounding the possibility of multiple soldiers being involved in the tragic killings.

Indeed, an Afghan parliamentary probe concluded that there were 15-20 U.S. soldiers involved in the murders. This finding was seemingly contradicted by a report from AP which cited alleged statements from two officials who did not participate in the probe and the U.S. government has claimed that only Bales was involved from day one.

Furthermore, child witnesses provided accounts to a journalist for Australias SBS Dateline which completely contradict the U.S.s official account.

Yalda Hakim, the journalist who covered the story, says that American investigators attempted to prevent her from interviewing the children, although she gained access through appeals directly to Afghan village leaders.

The eyewitness testimony of the children is quite detailed and it seems to be in line with the testimony of other Afghans who have cast doubt on the official story.

More at EndtheLie.com - http://EndtheLie.com/2012/03/31/lawyer-for-soldier-accused-of-afghan-slaughter-almost-complete-information-blackout/#ixzz1qoDlkNMR

John Henry Browne doesn’t have a clue about what goes on in a military court. He doesn’t know the UCMJ and doesn’t understand the MCM. He needs to get out of the case. He’s a great lawyer for a high profile civilian case. He doesn’t belong in this one.

It strikes me that even proving the defendant shot the dead people is going to be one devil of a job, the witnesses having disappeared into the wilds of Afganistan where finding and following them will be almost sure death for the defense team. Getting them over here to testify and be cross examined is also going to be a real challenge. No way is a guilty verdict a slam dunk.

Could well be. Indeed, how could a bunch of ignorant Afgan villagers, who don’t know and mostly can’t read English, identify a shooter operating in the dark of the night where there’s no electric power? Also, what American soldier in his right mind would go out twice into the Taliban dominated Afgan night on a double mass murder mission. Strikes me the Taliban from doing this and framing Bales than Bales did, even of Bales was legally insane.

The Sanford, FL police department didn’t arrest George Zimmerman because they had no probable cause. The crowds are crying out for Zimmerman to be crucified even though all the evidence we have vindicates him and supports his story.

Bales is in the same situation, except that instead of the Sanford police department, the “evidence” is being controlled by a chain of command headed by a foreign enemy combatant whose every action is lawless.

Evidence doesn’t matter. Not in the world of Eric Holder, Barack Obama, and any system that they control. Mob action is all they know or care about, the facts be darned.

Absolutely.. The Taliban knows how ‘knee jerk’ the liberals in charge of America are, and they could very well have staged some sort of ‘set up’ of Bales to promote a ‘withdraw now’ campaign by the lefties and our media, or merely to discredit our military and bolster sympathy for the Taliban.

My suspicion is that the U.S. government knows two things: (1) Bales didn't act alone, and (2) they are dealing with the prospect of one or more "rogue" military units that are perfectly willing and able to carry out a mission like this on their own.

As others have posted here ... the evidence in this case really sounds suspect at best, mainly because of the lack of any eyewitnesses that can be brought to testify in the U.S.

I don’t believe that our soldiers would conspire to do this. The only people who benefitted from these deaths were the Taliban/enemies of our troops and anybody who wanted Afghanistan to have a reason to give up on being allies in the war on terror.

IOW, Obama.

This whole mess stinks just like it came from him. Even the bit about making all the evidence off-limits. It’s his modus operandus to a T. It’s got his stink all over it.

Actually, U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan have benefitted greatly from this.

Afghans went on a murderous rampage in response to the burning of Korans a few months ago. Six U.S. military personnel were killed in that aftermath.

The Afghan response to this incident has been remarkably muted in comparison, which leads me to believe that a U.S. soldier (or a group of U.S. soldiers) slaughtering entire families in their homes at night is something that strikes fear in these people in ways that nothing else ever did. I suspect Sgt. Bales (if was involved in this) and any other U.S. soldiers who may have been involved in it knew this better than anyone else, and acted accordingly.

P.S. I am also convinced that these people were not massacred at random, but that the families were deliberately targeted.

War is hell. Just ask the men who roamed the central highlands of Vietnam with Sam Ybarra and Task Force Oregon back in 1967-68.

There may not be witnesses but there are cartridge casings. Cartridge casings may contain fingerprints and will bear mechanical markings which can be matched to the rifle(s) that fired them. There should also be bootprints.

I totally agree with you. This whole story smells like 3 day old fish. For one person to do that much killing and then burn people up on top of it in one night without alerting anyone is just over the top.

I would be less suprised to learn that this was some kind of a special ops mission gone bad and Bales is front and center to take the fall.

17
posted on 04/01/2012 12:16:16 PM PDT
by Georgia Girl 2
(The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)

It doesn’t sound like our soldiers to let one guy take all the heat for it though. It looks like a set-up against a guy that was very well-liked and for good reason.

The Afghan soldiers are still murdering coalition troops. The US media hasn’t been reporting much of it because they’ve been focused on Trayvon instead, but the killing is still going on.

It does seem goofy, though, that Panetta showed a sign of distrust to HIS OWN troops right around that time. Forcing our guys to disarm in a combat zone before Panetta would be with them is a bad message. And the idea of making all the US troops gather in one area away from the villages so the Taliban could kill them all in one swoop is crazy. Did the military comply with Karzai’s wishes on that?

I have no way of knowing what really happened. All any of us have is theories, and it seems like the military is hell-bent on it staying that way, even for Bales’ defense team. I just know it stinks to high heaven.

Thought I was keeping up on this case because of the FReeper on here who knows/served with SSgt Bales. Sounded out of character at the time and more so now. Never heard there were 15-20 soldiers?? And the whole storyline has been fraught with inconsistencies. My prayers for the families whoever they are and for SSGT Bales who is seemingly being railroaded.

Meanwhile Major a$$hatalahuakboreNidal who killed 14 and wounded 29 at Ft hood is a domestic violence case, go figure.

19
posted on 04/01/2012 1:32:42 PM PDT
by Karliner
( Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28, Romans 8:38"...this is the end of the beginning."WC)

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.